A Song for Winter: Research

    Fighting a lich was not something William was prepared to do. Firstly, he had never had to face one down before. Nor did he quite understand what sort of foul magic kept them from dying or made them so strong. Secondly, William needed to know if they had any sort of weakness that could be exploited. Lastly, he needed to know how to put a lich in the ground and make it stay in the ground. William wasn’t about to schedule a rematch without knowing how to defeat a seemingly immortal enemy. He always claimed he was smarter than that.

   

    Knowledge of liches wasn’t exactly the standard curriculum for Clan Drackonas and Clan Wintersong didn’t talk of forbidden magics. With no other choice, William was forced to travel to the Librarium Arcanum on the central part of the continent. Normally, a trip like this would take several months but thanks to William’s newfound ability to open portals it took mere seconds. On the other side of the portal, a marvelous building of shining marble with magic essence heavy in the air stood tall against the skies of a busy city the likes William had never seen before. This place was warm and full of life and people of many different races and cultures.

 

    Inside the Librarium Arcanum, the massive marble building was lit with magical braziers revealing hundreds of bookshelves. Each bookshelf held hundreds of books made from all kinds of materials with all kinds of exotic symbols. Magical golems put books back on the shelves and pointed other patrons to where to look for what they needed. Small butterfly winged dragons, owls, cats, and rat familiars scurried about carrying books back to their masters. The ambient scratching sound of pen on parchment sounded constantly as magical researchers took their notes. Looking around William stood out from the other patrons in his armor and traveling clothes.

 

    Knowing that there was no way he was going to find the book that he needed on his own, William asked one of the librarian golems for help. It cycled through several languages until it arrived at one William understood. Pointing towards the way back of the bookshelves the golem informed William that books on that subject were not allowed to be taken out of the library. Without wasting a second William set off towards where he had been directed amongst the shelves. It took the better part of an hour to reach the row of books he needed. 

 

After taking a swing from a flask in his pocket all the weird symbols on the books made sense. With a limited duration and an even more limited supply of the potion, William set to work reading quickly. After a few hours and an empty flask later William knew everything he needed to about liches. To destroy the sentient undead abominations for good, he would have to destroy the phylactery housing its soul which had to always be on the same plane as the foul being. Also, it turns out that funerary flowers could temporarily disrupt the lich’s magic, weakening it. Armed with this knowledge William set out back home to prepare for his next battle.